Before entering plaintiffs’ practice, Holly began her career as a prosecutor in 2011 and then became a civil defense lawyer. She ultimately rose to equity shareholder at Bullivant Houser Bailey, where she handled sophisticated litigation involving corporations, insurers, product manufacturers, nursing homes, healthcare professionals, and other defendants. She was a trainer and supervisor of other attorneys, staff, and a regular speaker and presenter to doctors and external corporate personnel. She has taken and defended hundreds of depositions, worked extensively with medical, scientific, economic, and other expert witnesses, and handled complex issues at both the trial and appellate levels. She has first-chaired criminal and civil trials and has a list of successful results on both sides of the “v.”
That background gives Holly a practical advantage. She understands how defendants investigate claims, assess exposure, select and prepare expert witnesses, challenge causation and damages, and decide whether to settle or take a case to trial. She uses that knowledge to anticipate defense strategies, expose weaknesses, and build cases capable of withstanding aggressive opposition.
That said, Holly knew she was hardwired to advocate for those outside of the power grid. In 2019, she gave birth to her son. Shortly after, she watched her father battle and die of the cancer he was diagnosed with one month after he retired. These two experiences centered the value of time for her. She refocused her life to use this precious resource wisely. For work, this meant spending time advocating for clients she cared about deeply.
Since her switch to Plaintiff’s work in 2022, Holly has secured several significant results for injured persons and their families. This includes several results over seven figures. She is particularly proud of creating new types of claims from scratch in at least four instances. Separately, significant published results for her include a $4 million settlement in a nursing home abuse case in which as a condition of settlement, the facility admitted to neglect and abandonment of an elder; a $2.5 million settlement arising from a motor-vehicle collision involving a father and his son who were on their way to the son’s first day of work; and a $2.6 million jury verdict for a cell phone tower worker who suffered from sprains and a concussion in a low-damage motor-vehicle crash. The nursing home abuse matter remains one of the most meaningful cases of her career because it allowed her to seek accountability for a vulnerable person whose trust had been profoundly violated, and because it enabled her to follow in the footsteps of her late father, who had prosecuted elder abuse in his early career.
She approaches representation as a partnership and takes particular pride in centering what is important to the client, as well as the client’s personality, in telling the story of their case. So often, the most challenging aspect of the legal wrong a client has experienced is the loss of control over something important to them. Holly understands that the litigation system can exacerbate the sense of lost control, but strives to empower the client through what can be controlled in their case. Clients should understand what is happening, feel heard, and retain a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their future. Because justice does not look the same for every person, Holly begins by learning what a successful outcome means to the individual client. She then develops the strategy and evidence needed to pursue it.
Her peers have recognized her work throughout her career. In 2017, Holly received the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers Outstanding Litigation Associate Award – awarded to a single attorney annually. She was selected to Washington SuperLawyers Rising Stars for three years and has been selected to Washington Super Lawyers from 2023 onward.
At Defiance Injury Law, Holly brings together the defining strengths of her career: the experience to take on sophisticated opponents, the judgment to navigate consequential litigation, and the conviction that injured people deserve an equally sophisticated advocate on their side.
